Ulcerative colitis or Non-specific colitis (CUC) is referred to as a type of chronic colitis without known causes. Said disease causes lesion (mostly ulcer) that usually occurs on the mucosa of colon and also extends throughout the colon. The fatality rate of CUC in acute stage is high, and cancer is feasible to be induced in the chronic stage. The clinical cardinal symptom of CUC comprises abdominal pain, diarrhea, bloody purulent stool and tenesmus. The pathological course of CUC is protracted and the attacks repeat frequently. Recently, there is an upward tendency of onset with said disease, attacking people at any age, affecting more male than female. So far, the pathogenesis of said disease is still unknown and it suggests that the onset of CUC relates to immunity, heredity, infection and mental stress. Most scholars incline to the view, however, that CUC is involved in not only the autoimmune mechanism, but also the heredity tendency.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, ulcerative colitis (UC) is deemed as falling into the categories of “chronic diarrhea”, “dysentery”, “Intestine attacked by wind” and “poison in Zang-organ” and the like. The pathogenesis of said disease is mostly concerned with being caught in Summer-heat and Cold-dampness, or the internal injury caused by eating the cold, or the internal injury in the Spleen and Stomach, yun-hua abnormality, or downward flow of Damp-pathogen to large intestine, yun-jie bu-jie, rendering the stagnation of Fu-Qi in the Stomach and Intestine, or the stagnation of Qi and Blood followed by combined Dampness or Cold-dampness.
Currently, the clinical therapy for the UC comprises various methods, which is classified as Western medical therapy, Traditional Chinese therapy and Acupunctural therapy.
Western Medical Therapy
At present, the Western medical therapy uses medicines comprising norfloxacin, salicylazo sulfapyridine (SASP), immune depressant, corticosteroid and Metronidazole etc. However, due to the complexity of UC, such as relapsing course of UC and the treatment slow in effect, serious adverse effect is easily arisen in the long-term administration of Western medicine.
Acupuncture Therapy
Xu F (1998) discloses the application of specific thread-burying method to points such as Dachangshu, Tianshu and Zusanli, specifically with the chorda chirurgicalis in a 2-˜3 size monthly, the result of which is merit in comparison with Western medicine.
Li LSh (1998) discloses the application of Qi-gong and acupuncture to the treatment of UC. And the effective rates of both the acupunctural and Qi-gong treatment reach 57%.
To sum up, though the acupunctural therapy achieves a certain therapeutic effect, there still exists defect as follows: 1) lacks stringent scientific design; 2) with respect to the long-term therapeutic effect of said disease, the acupunctural treatment is not satisfying.
Traditional Chinese Therapy
Traditional Chinese therapy deems that the cause of mentioned disease mainly relates to the Six evils attacking, especially the evil of Damp-heat, impairment by overeating, the stagnation of emotions and congenital deficiency and the like. The mechanism is Fundamental deficiency and Incidental excess, with deficiency and excess admixed. Taking advantage of the method of planning treatment according to diagnosis, the traditional Chinese medicine made some progress in the treatment of UC, comprising the follows:
1) Oral Administration of Traditional Chinese Medical Materials
Shao ShQ (2000) discloses that the oral administration of XiLei powder and coix seed in the treatment of UC by using the method of nourishing stomach and invigorating spleen achieves a satisfying therapeutic result.
Tian ZhX (2000) discloses the administration of Prepared Aconite Root and Chinese Cassia Tree-bark etc., for the treatment of spleen yang-deficient UC with a total effective rate of 95.5%.
Zhou JH (2000) discloses the oral administration of Coptis Root and Common Fennel etc., in the treatment of chronic UC with a total effective rate of 88%.
It can be seen that the oral administration methods disclosed as above has achieved good treatment effect. However, since the UC pathogenic site mainly locates on the terminal end of intestine, if merely treat by means of oral administration with the method of planning treatment according to diagnosis, it is hard for the pharmaceutical effect to focus on the pathogenic place. Therefore, soly treating by means of oral administration is insufficiently beneficiary to the direct treatment to pathogenic site.
2) Enteroclytic Treatment of Traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials
Zhong GSH (1996) discloses that the enteroclysis of Dandelion herb and Can Er etc., in the treatment of UC achieves a satisfying therapeutic result is satisfying.
Wang BH (1992) discloses that a satisfying result was obtained by applying the enteroclysis of Meihua Dianshe Dan plus other traditional Chinese medicinal materials for the treatment of UC.
Leng W (1996) discloses that the total efficacy of the enteroclysis of Yunnan White powder combined with XiLei powder for the treatment of UC reaches 97%.
Chinese patent application No. 97125835.X (for the powder for the treatment of UC and proctitis) employs the raw materials like Pearl, Coptis Root, Sanguis Draxonis (Xue Jie) and Rhubarb etc., for the treatment of said disease with certain therapeutic effects achieved.
At present, the pathogenesis of UC is still unknown. Some experiences for treating this disease by TCM have been accumulated. Although the aforesaid therapies for treating this disease has achieved certain effects, they mainly focus on clearing away toxic material, promoting regeneration of tissue, promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, without giving a symptomatic treatment to the UC induced by the stagnation of Damp-heat. In addition, the absence of staging and follow-up study of long-term effect as well as the prevention of relapse of said disease, without unified therapeutic scheme brings difficulties to further R&D of effective medicament.